Autonomous vehicles are expected to become a reality in the near future. It will free humans from the attention-demanding task of driving and allow them to work or play while traveling in autonomous vehicles. One basic human need is socializing. Social networking is an important part of current day life. Although online social networking is popular, it is no replacement of meeting in-person and in-person socializing is still desired by many.
When a person travels alone in an autonomous vehicle for an extended period, he may desire to socialize in-person with other people, either friends or people with common current interest, who are traveling, or with a small route-change can travel, on the same route for a sufficiently long portion of the trip. Similarly, when a small number of people in an autonomous vehicle are traveling for an extended period, they may wish to socialize in-person with a larger group of travelers along the same route. The travelers are unlikely to have exactly the same starting point and destination, so having a larger capacity autonomous vehicles make multiple pickups and drop-offs is inconvenient and wastes time. This invention meets the needs described above. There is no prior art that can do the same.